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The Inside Job: Practicing Cold Weather Undercover Beauty Maintenance

It’s winter and it’s cold. You’re bundled up in a fur parka by The Row, cool knits from Sacai, and Proenza Schouler’s leather trousers. Even your hands are hidden by Givenchy’s full-length statement gloves. So there’s really no need to think about those below-the-neck parts that are safely concealed beneath all that clothing. Right?

Wrong. According to New York City skin doctors Ellen Marmur and Francesca Fusco, now is the time to invest in a few stealth skin-care treatments at the dermatologist’s office. Yes, they may require a few days of downtime—but they’ll go far in improving your skin’s quality and texture throughout the colder months (not to mention warding off any skirt-induced panic on the first day of spring). Here, the experts weigh in on exactly what to tackle while your body is still under wraps.

FADING SUN SPOTS AND HYPER-PIGMENTATIONLazy days spent sailing along the coast of St. Barth’s may be a favorite summer ritual, but long-term UV exposure can cause spots and freckles to accumulate on the skin’s surface over time. If you plan on taking serious action against them, you’ll need to stay out of the sun for a few weeks afterward: Post–laser-induced sensitivity will make the skin more vulnerable to sun damage—meaning these treatments really are best reserved for turtleneck weather.

To zap the occasional wanton freckle on the hands, arms, and neck, Fusco’s go-to device is an “aim-and-shoot” YaG laser (spots should gradually flake off after up to ten days). For more diffuse pigmentation on the decolleté, she recommends a series of Fraxel Dual laser sessions—one treatment every six to eight weeks—which will also treat those vertical lines on your chest. “It will leave you looking a little crispy,” she says of the procedure, which requires about five days of recovery time.

IMPROVING SCARS, STRETCH MARKS, AND SKIN TEXTUREPregnancy, hormonal changes, and sudden weight loss or gain can cause stretch marks to appear on the abdomen, arms, and backs of the thighs. To treat those striated lines, as well as darkened scars, Marmur chooses a Fraxel Restore laser, which uses a slightly different wavelength than its aforementioned counterpart to normalize their appearance. She recommends about three treatments and, since scars and stretch marks require a more aggressive approach, cautions that you may be “very, very red” for the following two weeks.

Skin that has lost its firm, youthful texture over time or been stretched due to pregnancy may require a combination of therapies—like Fraxel Restore (three sessions) and Thermage (one treatment)—to tighten it instead. Although Thermage has no downtime, results do get better with a series of monthly treatments, says Marmur, so “don’t wait until May.” If you’re a procrastinator, Ulthera, which uses ultrasound energy, offers more immediate results when targeting areas of the body like the stomach.

INVESTING IN LASER HAIR REMOVALThis procedure won’t work as well on tan skin, natural or fake. According to Fusco, “both confuse the laser,” which will no longer be able to differentiate between the skin and the hair. Not a problem if you’ve hardly seen the sun for weeks. A series of treatments, spaced every four weeks apart, should get rid of unwanted fuzz—permanently. “You’ll be nice and smooth by summer,” she says. If you want to tackle the problem in the privacy of your own home, she also recommends the Remington i-Light Pro Intense Pulsed Light device.

TAKING ON VARICOSE AND SPIDER VEINSBefore treating those thin blue veins in the legs, Marmur maps them out using ultrasound technology to better understand their anatomy. “If your infrastructure isn’t working, any treatments you do on the surface will have limited [success],” she explains. For this reason, Marmur goes after deeper varicose veins with a laser first. “It’s definitely a procedure,” she says of the side effects, which include significant bruising. Once the area has healed, she may perform sclerotherapy, which requires injecting a detergent-like solution into smaller spider veins, ultimately causing them to tighten up and dissolve. “Your body essentially eats them up,” she explains. The process does leave bruises, albeit smaller ones, and veins may get darker before they disappear. She recommends booking the treatment once a month for three consecutive months. And as fast as you can, say January, February, or March, your legs will be ready for sundress weather.